Video Games and Pop Culture with a dash of Feminism.

Wonder Woman Breaks Down Walls With Massive Opening Weekend

DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. newest super hero origin story, Wonder Woman, rocked the box office this weekend with an estimated $100.5 million domestic gross. This means it earned more than all other films currently in the marketplace combined and placed third in best opening weekends of 2017 behind Beauty and the Beast ($174.8M) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ($146.5M). Globally, the film has earned an estimated debut gross of $224 million with China leading the overseas market.

According to Rotten Tomatoes and Box Office Mojo, super hero origin films don’t typically do this well in their opening weekend. As we the viewers know, origin stories tend to be a bit lackluster and take a backseat to films featuring more established characters. However, that is not the case with Wonder Woman. For reference, Captain America: The First Avenger, Steve Rogers’ origin story taking place within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), had an opening weekend gross of $65 million. Another interesting bit of information shows that 52% of movie goers who went to see Wonder Woman this weekend were female, while normally super hero movies “skew around 60% male”. This film also sets the record for best opening weekend of all time for a female director, so props to Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins on this stunning accomplishment!

Wonder Woman currently has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 93%, severely outshining her DC Extended Universe (DCEU) companions Man of Steel (55%) and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (27%). It looks like all the hullabaloo surrounding the Alamo Drafthouse ladies-only screening of the film did nothing to impact the general consensus of the film itself (go figure) as it is without a doubt a very successful film, both critically and financially, despite the handful of men who refunded their tickets and chose to boycott the film. All in all, Wonder Woman is a hit and this is the win that female audiences sorely needed for so many reasons.

This film is the first successful, critically acclaimed comic book film to star a female heroine and that is big news no matter how you slice it. Much of that is thanks to the amazingly well cast group of stars, such the amazing Gal Gadot and Chris Pine, as well as the entire film crew for all their hard work and dedication to making such a quality film. Wonder Woman sets the precedent for the future as doubters can no longer claim that female-led films wont sell or aren’t appealing. We can only hope that Wonder Woman opens all the doors to a future with a more equal balance of male and female leads in super hero films as opposed the staggering amount of male-led films in the genre. This isn’t to say that male-led films are in any way bad films, but there are so many awesome female comic book characters that deserve big screen recognition of their own and I simply hope they get their chance now. It looks as if the MCU’s first scheduled female-led film, Captain Marvel, will be released in March of 2019 which feels so far off. I can only hope that in the mean time more female-led comic book films are announced for both the MCU and DCEU, maybe starting with more information on the currently confirmed Gotham City Sirens film.

Wonder Woman is a great movie which feels so empowering to experience. It’s not only that it’s a female-led film, or that it may open doors, it’s that this film is simply terrific and feels so good to watch. We’ve seen female-led comic book films in the past such as Elektra and Catwoman, but nearly all of them have been critically panned and were honestly just bad movies. With Wonder Woman we see a film that is just so well done and being enjoyed by everyone rather than disliked. In the theater I saw the film in, everyone (including the men) was clapping and cheering throughout the film as Wonder Woman kicked ass on the screen.

It has been inspiring to see so much love for a film such as this, to see images of little girls having someone they can look up to, a role model worthy of the title who is empowering young people around the global to be strong and kind. Wonder Woman brings about a message of the importance of love and truth in a world where nothing is needed more than those two things. This is the film we need at this time; not only because it’s chock-full of girl power but because it puts forth and important message in these trying times. So here’s to Wonder Woman and all those who brought her to life and put her on the silver screen in this marvelous debut worthy of a round of applause. I’d like to extend a massive thank you to the cast and crew for their fantastic work as well as urge all those who have yet to see the film to take the time to fix that because it is 100% worth your time!

Pine and Gadot had stellar on-screen chemistry and the narrative did such an amazing job telling Diana’s story without reducing the supporting cast to throwaway side-kicks. This film is a huge win for us DC fans who’ve been waiting since the Nolan trilogy for to walk out of a DCU film happy and excited, but I can only imagine what it’s like in the female fandom, growing up without an empowering hero film until now. Hopefully, this film changes lives and sets the bar for future DCU films, much in the way the recent two Star Wars films seem to be doing.